Sustainability in Engineering: Top tips to make your products more sustainable

Every product, from building insulation to a single-use plastic bottle, has an environmental impact – and most of that impact is determined before it is even manufactured, according to Stephen Dyson from Protolabs, with over 80% of a product’s environmental impact determined in the design stage.

Designers must therefore take myriad factors into account, from materials and energy use to production and the supply chain. Thankfully, said Dyson and colleague Steve Lewis-Brammer at their Sustainability in Engineering webinar this morning (27 September), life-cycle analysis (LCA) can help make sense of those factors.

Following on from a recent Design Council workshop, the presenters shared some top tips on how to use LCA to develop more sustainable products and solutions:

• Make sure that you include the planet in the scope of the design brief
• Reduce, re-use, recycle. But first think ‘does this need to be made at all?’
• Consider materials carefully and optimise material use for product and packaging
• Analyse where there are highest levels of waste and energy
• Engage the whole supply chain to create efficiencies, and collaborate with others to reduce waste and re-use materials across sectors
• Localise the supply chain where possible and reconsider your energy sources
• Create storage to reduce waste and to help with disassembly and re-use
• Enable on-site production
• Design for end of life and disassembly. Abide by Design for Planet principles of circularity and regeneration.

View the webinar on-demand now for expert advice on how and why to implement each of the steps, with examples and context from across engineering and manufacturing sectors.    

Become a net zero expert at Sustainability in Engineering (26-30 September), part of the Engineering Futures webinar series. Register for FREE now.

Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.